First-episode psychosis and migration in Italy (PEP-Ita migration): a study in the Italian mental health services

BACKGROUND: It has been frequently reported a higher incidence of psychotic disorders in immigrants than in native populations. There is, however, a lack of knowledge about risk factors which may explain this phenomenon. A better understanding of the causes of psychosis among first-generation migrants is highly needed, particularly in Italy, a country with a recent massive migration. METHODS/DESIGN: The "Italian study on first-episode psychosis and migration (PEP-Ita)" is a prospective observational study over a two-year period (1 January 2012-31 December 2013) which will be carried out in 11 Italian mental health centres. All participating centres will collect data about all new cases of migrants with first-episode psychosis. The general purpose ("core") of the PEP-Ita study is to explore the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, and the pathways to care of a population of first-episode psychosis migrants in Italy. Secondary aims of the study will be: 1) to understand risk and protective factors for the development of psychotic disorders in migrants; 2) to evaluate the correlations between psychopathology of psychotic disorders in migrants and socio-demographic characteristics, migration history, life experiences; 3) to evaluate the clinical and social outcomes of first-episode psychoses in migrants. DISCUSSION: The results of the PEP-Ita study will allow a better understanding of risk factors for psychosis in first-generation migrants in Italy. Moreover, our results will contribute to the development of prevention programmes for psychosis and to the improvement of early intervention treatments for the migrant population in Italy

Detection potential of the KM3NeT detector for high-energy neutrinos from the Fermi bubbles

A recent analysis of the Fermi Large Area Telescope data provided evidence for a high-intensity emission of high-energy gamma rays with a E 2 spectrum from two large areas, spanning 50 above and below the Galactic centre (the ‘‘Fermi bubbles’’). A hadronic mechanism was proposed for this gamma-ray emission making the Fermi bubbles promising source candidates of high-energy neutrino emission. In this work Monte Carlo simulations regarding the detectability of high-energy neutrinos from the Fermi bubbles with the future multi-km3 neutrino telescope KM3NeT in the Mediterranean Sea are presented. Under the hypothesis that the gamma-ray emission is completely due to hadronic processes, the results indicate that neutrinos from the bubbles could be discovered in about one year of operation, for a neutrino spectrum with a cutoff at 100 TeV and a detector with about 6 km3 of instrumented volume. The effect of a possible lower cutoff is also considered.Published7–141.8. Osservazioni di geofisica ambientaleJCR Journalrestricte

Expansion cone for the 3-inch PMTs of the KM3NeT optical modules

[EN] Detection of high-energy neutrinos from distant astrophysical sources will open a new window on the Universe. The detection principle exploits the measurement of Cherenkov light emitted by charged particles resulting from neutrino interactions in the matter containing the telescope. A novel multi-PMT digital optical module (DOM) was developed to contain 31 3-inch photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). In order to maximize the detector sensitivity, each PMT will be surrounded by an expansion cone which collects photons that would otherwise miss the photocathode. Results for various angles of incidence with respect to the PMT surface indicate an increase in collection efficiency by 30% on average for angles up to 45 degrees with respect to the perpendicular. Ray-tracing calculations could reproduce the measurements, allowing to estimate an increase in the overall photocathode sensitivity, integrated over all angles of incidence, by 27% (for a single PMT). Prototype DOMs, being built by the KM3NeT consortium, will be equipped with these expansion cones.This work is supported through the EU, FP6 Contract no. 011937, FP7 grant agreement no. 212252, and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.Adrián Martínez, S.; Ageron, M.; Aguilar, JA.; Aharonian, F.; Aiello, S.; Albert, A.; Alexandri, M.... (2013). Expansion cone for the 3-inch PMTs of the KM3NeT optical modules. Journal of Instrumentation. 8(3):1-19. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/8/03/T03006S1198

Heri Dicebamus: Rosa Mul\ue9 rilegge Albert Otto Hirschman (1970) Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press

L'articolo analizza il contributo di Albert Hirschmann alla scienza politica del secolo XX

World Economy and International Relations

The development of the South European welfare state has raised several questions regarding the transformation and viability of its defining features in the new millennium. Where do the incentives for change come from? What are the obstacles and opportunities for change? The key issues concern the stability of welfare institutions, the resilience of welfare policy legacies, such as familialism, and the constellation of actors involved in the processes of continuity and change. This article examines the challenges faced by the South European welfare state and argues that after the global economic crisis of 2007\u20132011 South European countries continue to share the main characteristic of very weak welfare capitalism, although Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain have undertaken divergent paths to cope with the political economy of austerity. In addition, the article suggests that prospects for Europeanization are dwarfed by the fact that national actors use EU constraints and opportunities in the field of social policy either to strengthen their legitimization, amplify their room for manoeuvre or expand their power. Hence policy reforms reflect the timing, the constellation of actors and the political and social conflicts that prevail in each country. By \u2018bringing politics back in\u2019 this article departs from mainstream research on South European welfare policy change where institutions are typically anthropomorphised and treated as coherent actors in the policy process. The article contributes to the literature by offering a sounder explanation that includes the role of political entrepreneurs as a crucial analytical aspect in understanding variations in welfare state patterns in Southern Europe

The Political Economy of Institutional Change and Continuity in Emerging and Advanced Nation States

This chapter builds on recent scholarship to specify the analytic benefits of applying institutional theory to explain the political economy of institutional change and continuity in emerging and advanced nations states. This research programme asks questions about what kinds of institutional changes take place, under what kinds of political configurations and actors, propelled by what kinds of political processes and in which arenas of decision-making those changes occu